


Always a possibility

by PeterHaleforAlpha



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 08:39:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4053685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeterHaleforAlpha/pseuds/PeterHaleforAlpha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been always a possibility since the day Nathan got this tattoo.  Duke knew this. Since Nathan had this mark on his arm it was clear to him that there was a tiny chance that it would be Nathan who was taking his life someday.<br/>But if Duke was true to himself he saw this possibility never happen because it was Nathan. Nathan would never, no matter how much he might hated him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always a possibility

Duke was lying on the ground, defenseless, looking up to Nathan who was holding a gun in his hand, pointing it directly at Duke’s head.

It had been always a possibility since the day Nathan got this tattoo.  Duke knew this. Since Nathan had this mark on his arm it was clear to him that there was a tiny chance that it would be Nathan who was taking his life someday.

But if Duke was true to himself he saw this possibility never happen because it was Nathan. Nathan would never, no matter how much he might hated him.

“Nathan,” Duke tried to calm him down and robbed a little further away from him. “Don’t do anything stupid.” For once Duke had no back up weapon. He couldn’t fight back.

“You deserve this!” There was a rage in Nathan’s voice that hurt Duke more than the sight of Nathan pointing a gun at him because Duke saw this once or twice in his life before.

The first question that popped into Duke’s mind was “Why?” but better not provoke him any further because even Duke could think of one or two reason why he deserved to die so better not give Nathan any more motive to shoot him.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” He asked instead because he knew Nathan. He might be angry at him at the moment because of something that Duke had done to piss him off – and he really didn’t know what it was – but he would regret it afterwards. Nathan Wuornos was no killer. Murdering someone in cold blood wasn’t his style.

“You killed so many people.” Nathan took a step closer. “And you will continue killing.”

“Okay, okay.” Duke held out a hand to calm Nathan down. “Look, I’m not denying killing people, I did. But you know I only killed them because there was no other way. I killed them to protect other people.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Nathan shook his head and looked at him fiercely. “You deserve to die too.”

“Wait, Nathan, please, don’t.” Duke couldn’t comprehend seeing his friend like this, not that he wanted to kill him, it happened before, but something was wrong with him. “Listen to me. If you kill me, you won’t forgive yourself. Killing a man – no matter if he deserved it or not – changes you. And you won’t forgive yourself. Please, Nathan, just think about it one more time.” Duke didn’t want to imagine the big black hole Nathan would find himself in if he actually went through with it. “I don’t want you to suffer once more because of me.” He had hurt Nathan so many times, he was aware of that. He didn’t want to do it again.

“I won’t care at all,” Nathan spitted out and Duke believed him. It was the way he said it that made Duke not doubting his words in the slightest. This man in front of him was not Nathan, at least not the Nathan he knew and this man would have no regrets.

Duke had accepted that there was probably no way out of this situation. So he smiled at his old friend. “It was great knowing you, Nate.”

“STOP!” A yell echoed over the field and if Duke wouldn’t know it better he would say it was Nathan’s voice. He looked over to the source of the sound and it truly was Nathan, approaching them carefully. Okay, this was weird but then again, this was Haven, so why wonder at all?

The one Nathan that was standing over him turned around but not changing the direction of the gun. It was still pointed at Duke’s head. “What do you want?”

“I’m here to stop you.” Good Nathan pulled his gun out of his holster and pointed it at bad Nathan. “Leave him alone.”

Duke had dreams about this but they didn’t exactly go like this at all. There were no pointing weapons or all this desire of killing him.

“Don’t be stupid. You can’t kill me.” Bad Nathan laughed manically. It was disturbing. “But we can kill him. He deserves to die.” The look of pure excitement went over Nathan’s face. It was horrifying especially because it was directed at Duke and he didn’t feel excited about this thought at all.

“Okay, can we stop talking about killing me and just lower our guns already?” He looked over to his Nathan. At least he hoped it was his Nathan. It seemed so. Anyway he wanted to protect him. One reason for Duke sighting with him instead with the other version of Nathan.

“I will shoot,” good Nathan warned the other. “I don’t care what happens. You’re not killing Duke.” His voice was cold as ice. A shiver ran down Duke’s back but more because of the words he said than anything else. What would happen if the one Nathan would shoot the other?

“He killed people. He hurt us so many times.”

“This is no reason.” Good Nathan came nearer and was standing beside Duke now, still pointing the gun at the other version of himself.

Okay, this talking about us was really weird. What was going on for Christ’s sake?

“He doesn’t deserve to die. I don’t want him to die. Just stop it or I will shoot you.” It almost sounded like good Nathan was begging but that couldn’t be possible. Nathan wouldn’t beg for his life. Yes, they were near friends again but they were not so close that Nathan would fall on his knee and kiss someone’s shoe to save his life.

“You don’t even know what you want.” Duke could only see the slight movement in bad Nathan’s hand before he heard the gun shot. He expected to feel pain but there was none. Instead he heard how a body hit the floor and a second one right behind it.

Nathan fell to the ground next to him. Duke turned around, crawling into a sitting position and looked over his friend. There was a huge bullet wound right under his chest. “What did you do?” Duke took off his cardigan and pressed it on the wound to help Nathan. “And what is going on?”

“A Trouble,” Nathan said and Duke wished for some more explanation because he guessed so far. It was always a Trouble in Haven especially when your best friend stood in front of you in two different versions of himself.

Duke looked over to the bad one and saw the exact same wound on him too. “You are the same person?”

Nathan nodded. “A troubled person can split people, into their good and bad parts. Audrey is after him.”

Duke rolled his eyes. “So you are the good one and he is the bad one?” He pointed at the other Nathan.

“Yes.”

Duke smirked. “Good to know that there is a side in you that actually wants to see me dead.”

“I stopped him, Duke,” Nathan pointed out. Did this mean that the good part was stronger than the bad?

“By shooting yourself. Not very clever, Nate.” Duke didn’t know what to do. Apparently it wouldn’t help that much if he tried to stop the bleeding of only one of them. He had to treat the other one too if he wanted to save Nathan. He grabbed Nathan’s hand and put it on his cardigan. “Put some pressure on it. I’ll be right back.” Duke stood up and wanted to rush over to the other as he suddenly vanished into thin air. He was just gone. How could that happen?

The first thought that came into his mind was that he died but that meant that the other – he turned around in panic but his Nathan had still his eyes open and was clearly breathing. Sighing relieved he walked back to him. “He is gone.”

“Parker apparently stopped the Trouble then.”

Sooner would have been better Duke thought but didn’t say anything. “So you’re back to your old balanced self?”

“I think so.” Nathan was breathing heavily and his eye lids were fluttering.

“Hey, Nathan, stay with me.” He grabbed him and started to shake him a little before he realized that it wouldn’t do anything good with Nathan so he continued talking to him. “Do you have your phone?” Duke lost his on the way out here. So he wanted to look in Nathan’s pockets. He needed to get some help here.

But Nathan stopped him by grabbing his wrist. “You don’t really think I want to kill you, do you?”

“Nathan, I-“ Duke never believed that Nathan actually wanted to kill him, maybe banish him to the other side of the earth so they don’t have to deal with each other ever again but he never thought that Nathan wanted to kill him. But now – Duke didn’t know what to think anymore. Yes, it was only a part of Nathan that stood there, gun pointed at Duke’s head but this side was in Nathan. It was in the Nathan who was lying right in front of him. “We need to get some help. We can talk later about this.” Duke didn’t want to lie to him but he didn’t want to start a fight either – not with the condition Nathan was in. “Just let me get your phone and call an ambulance.” He shook Nathan’s hand off and reached into his pocket. With the phone he called for help and prayed that they would be here in time.

“Please, Duke, just tell me.“

“I don’t know, okay, Nathan? I don’t know what to think. I never thought you would do something like that and yet you were standing there, pointing a gun at me.” Duke didn’t want to admit it but it was his worst nightmare since the day he saw that Nathan got this tattoo. The thought of a mysterious man with this tattoo was worse enough but imagining that it could be Nathan some day was horrifying. He cared for Nathan, Nathan was probably the most important person in his life and he couldn’t imagine a worse death than being killed by the person you love. So Duke tried to never think about this and with the time he was actually convinced that Nathan would never go this way but now – now Duke had seen what Nathan was capable of. Even if it were just a part of him, he wanted to kill him.

“It wasn’t me,” Nathan tried to explain himself.

“It was. A part of you at least and this part is still inside of you.”

“I know.” Speaking got harder for Nathan but it didn’t stop him. “I know there is this part in me that still hates you … that still feels betrayed by you … and that … still doesn’t … trust you.” Nathan reached for Duke again and buried his hands in his shirt. “Believe me, I know. I try to fight it every day.”

Duke shook his head and laid his hand on Nathan’s.

“But I would never … want to … kill you.” Nathan’s mouth was filling with blood and Duke felt the tears in his eyes. He realized that Nathan wouldn’t make it and something broke in him.

“It’s okay, Nathan, I know. You wouldn’t have anyone left you could harass every day, right?” He tried to hide his fear behind a joke. It was ridiculous that he thought that Nathan wanted to kill him when he was dying because he sacrificed himself in order to save him. Nathan had put Duke’s life in front of his own. If this was not a good reason to believe that he didn’t want to see him dead then Duke didn’t know what was. “I’m sorry I doubted you, Nathan. You saved me.”

Nathan’s lips formed half a smile. “I couldn’t see … you die.”

Duke swallowed hard and put some more pressure on the wound because Nathan stopped sometime. He was careful to not touch Nathan’s blood though. “I can’t either so you hold on, okay?”

“It’s okay.” Nathan’s grip loosened. “I don’t feel it.” His eye lids were closing slowly.

It was not okay. Duke didn’t care much if Nathan was in pain or not. He only cared about the fact that he was dying right in front of him. “Nathan, don’t, just hang on. Fight!” Duke could feel the tears which were running down his cheeks now. “Stay with me please.” He grabbed for Nathan’s hand again but there was no reaction to it at all. “Nathan, dammit,” he shouted desperately but Nathan didn’t open his eyes again. In the distance Duke could hear the sirens of the ambulance but now they were just a cruel reminder that they were too late. His friend was gone. Nathan had died to protect him.

Duke thought dying by the hands of a loved one was bad but it was a hundred times worse to see your best friend die in front of you because he tried to save you.

It had been always a possibility that Nathan Wuornos would cause the death of him but Duke had never thought in a thousand of years that he would cause the death of Nathan someday.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all that read this are okay and still alive :)
> 
> I know it's a sad ending but I tried the other way and it just wasn't what I wanted it to be so I hope you forgive me choosing this sad ending.


End file.
